


Picture This

by Ultra



Category: Hart of Dixie
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Character Development, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Happy, Love, Realization, Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:40:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26013502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ultra/pseuds/Ultra
Summary: After Wade tells Zoe to 'change her picture or change her life' she starts to realise what it is (or rather, who it is) that really does make her happy.(Alt-ending to 2.3 If It Makes You Happy).
Relationships: Zoe Hart/Wade Kinsella
Kudos: 24





	Picture This

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this a couple of weeks ago or so after rewatching ‘If It Makes You Happy’ (again! lol) I didn’t think the episode needed any improvement before, but then I realised, maybe just a little? ;)

It made Zoe feel bad. She couldn’t believe that was really what Wade was aiming for. He wasn’t exactly the best at putting what he was feeling or even what he really thought into words, she was well aware of that and he seemed to realise it too. Still, the last part of his speech, that had started with him calling her the saddest person in the world, really hit home. 

‘You want to be happy, doc? Change your picture or change your life.’

Maybe he had a point. Zoe didn’t want to admit it, but it was probably true. Nothing about her life right now fitted with the plans she had made and this was certainly not the life she thought she would be living by now. Of course, when she gave it more consideration, she wondered if that was really such a bad thing.

A year ago, she was in New York. She had a job at a big hospital, plans to be a great cardio-thoracic surgeon, second only in prestige to her father. A nice apartment, good friends, a great life. Except that it wasn’t.

Her dad turned out not to be her father at all, but Ethan had offered Zoe the chance of the fellowship she so wanted. Her mother would help her out with her brand if she did go back. She had friends to return to, she might even get her old apartment back, but Zoe knew it wasn’t what she wanted. She had the opportunity and she turned it down, just as Wade had said, giving up the chance to be a ‘supersonic space surgeon’ as he put it, to stay in Bluebell, with her new friends, to be a GP.

All of this was still very much on Zoe’s mind when she called Tom back to the practice to talk about his use of St John’s Wort. He was just so scared of losing Wanda, it was enough to make Zoe want to cry.

“You know what, Tom? Just talk to Wanda and tell her the truth,” she advised him, pretty sure that his girlfriend would be as understanding as anyone ever could be if Tom wasn’t ready for sex just yet.

“But what if I lose her?” he asked in earnest.

Zoe smiled. “I don’t believe that you will,” she assured him, “but it’s your life, and you have to be honest with yourself about how you want to live it.”

It was only as she said those words that the truth of them really hit her. Being honest with others was important, but being honest with yourself, that was the big one. She was all for Tom and Wanda being honest and open, and yet, Zoe herself was struggling to be true to what was in her heart.

Her brain kept overriding everything. Hadn’t Brick told her before, that was no way to go on? Hadn’t Wade said just today that all she really needed to do was just let herself be happy, no matter what anybody else thought? No matter what she once believed was right?

“Dr. Hart. What are you doing out this late?”

Running into George Tucker ought to have cleared Zoe’s head completely. After all, he was the guy that she wanted to make her happy, or so she had thought.

“Heading home from work,” she told him. “You?”

“I actually just had a first date,” he said, complete with the usual toothpaste commercial smile.

“Oh, and how did it go?”

As he told her what happened with Shelby and Brick and everything, Zoe kept on waiting for the stabbing pain in her heart, but surprisingly, it never came. George had been out with another woman, that should hurt, but no. He told her about it with a smile and no real regrets, despite the awkwardness that came with his ex-fiancée’s father horning in on the meal, and that should really hurt too. Still nothing.

“It actually did feel good to have myself out there,” he confessed then. “You know, just trying. Just got to put yourself first sometimes, I guess.”

Zoe found herself considering those words a moment, considering George in all his handsome, charming glory, and realising, very quickly, that she was an absolute fool.

“Yeah, you do,” she agreed, continuing quickly, “and you know, what, George? That’s what I’m doing too.”

“Really?” he checked, tilting his head as he looked at her.

“Yes, because the truth is... well, don’t take this the wrong way, but me sitting around mooning over you, it doesn’t really make me very happy, and you, well, you look pretty darn happy without my help-”

“Zoe,” he cut in, shaking his head, but she pushed on regardless, knowing now she had started she had to get all of this out, not because it needed to be said so much as she _wanted_ it to be said.

“If we were meant to be together, George, we would be,” she told him straight. “We had a chance. In fact, we had a few chances, and every time, one of us backed out. In New Orleans, on your wedding day, and then the day after that...”

“Yeah, well, as I recall, some of that had a whole lot to do with a third party to this little situation,” said George, his hand making a motion in the space between them.

“You mean Wade.” Zoe nodded. “You’re right, he is involved in this, more than you know,” she confessed as she looked up again and met his eyes. “George, the truth is, I have been seeing Wade off-and-on ever since your wedding day. We’re not... I mean, it’s not dating exactly, it’s more... well, it’s...”

“Sex,” said George bluntly.

“Pretty much,” Zoe agreed, glancing away, “but I’m starting to realise that actually, it is more than that. I’m not going to get into this with you right now, because I really think Wade should be hearing it first, but I need you to know that... that I’ve been seeing him, and that I want to go on seeing him. That has to mean something, right?”

George heaved a sigh and then nodded his head.

“Yeah, I guess it does,” he admitted, smiling slightly. “I’m sorry, I’m just having a little trouble with losing a woman to Wade Kinsella. Never happened before.”

Zoe giggled, she couldn’t help it. “Well, there’s a first time for everything. I should probably go.”

They parted ways then, Zoe getting all of a half-dozen paces past George before she heard him say her name and turned back to look.

“Good luck,” he told her as their eyes met across the street. “Seriously, if this is what you want, well, I only ever wanted you to be happy.”

“Yeah, me too, for you,” she said with a smile, giving George a small wave before heading on home.

She made one quick stop on the way and by sheer luck caught a ride back to the plantation with Lavon. He asked why she seemed to have purchased a video game, the like of which he was more used to seeing in Wade’s possession than hers, but Zoe didn’t feel like explaining. The fact she wasn’t telling Lavon anything probably told him everything he needed to know by default, but Zoe didn’t care about that either. It was as she had said to George, Wade deserved to hear what she had to say first, it was only fair.

Of course, when he opened the door, her nerve started to go just a little bit. The banter about video games, that part was easy. Pretty much telling him he was right in what he had said to her before about her putting too much pressure on herself and not knowing how to be happy, she could handle that.

It would’ve been so easy just to let things be as they had been before, to play strip Halo and fall into his bed, but that wasn’t honest. It wasn’t fair to Wade or to herself. It was only going to make them partially happy and Zoe wasn’t settling for that anymore. She wanted all or nothing, preferably all.

“You know, I, uh, I saw George on my way home,” she confessed, as Wade made selections on the game’s opening menus, not offering her any response. “He told me about his date tonight and... well, I told him that you and I were still seeing each other.”

The game controller fell right out of Wade’s hands, clattering on the floor quite loudly in the silence. Zoe watched him fumble to pick it back up and almost laughed at his wide-eyed expression as he glanced her way then.

“Uh, you told Tucker we was seein’ each other?” he checked.

“Mmhmm.” Zoe nodded, putting her eyes back on the TV screen and finishing the set up process, since Wade now seemed incapable.

“Why?” he asked simply.

“Because,” she replied, glancing at him, “we are, aren’t we?”

There was a horrible moment when she thought he was going to laugh, when she expected him to tell her she was a fool for suggesting such a thing, and that if she wanted more than casual sex, she was in completely the wrong place. It wasn’t a stretch to think he could be that way. After all, it happened once before, the morning after the first time.

“Well, I guess we could be,” he said instead, one hand briefly at the back of his neck, “you know, if you wanted.”

Zoe hadn’t realised she was holding her breath until all the air suddenly rushed out of her lungs and she smiled. 

“I do,” she said happily. “I do want that.”

“Right then.” Wade nodded once. “And George knows?” he double-checked.

“He does,” Zoe confirmed. “I thought he deserved to know that I was picking you, because that’s what I’ve done,” she said, eyes down in her lap a second before she dared to meet his gaze one more time.

Wade was so much closer now, though she wasn’t aware that either of them had moved at all.

“Why?” he asked her again, so quietly she more felt the word than heard it.

“Because, Wade Kinsella,” she said, just as soft, “you make me happy.”

The smile he gave her then was enough to light up an entire room, and then he was kissing her and Zoe was kissing back, the world making sense in a way that it hadn’t in too long as they got lost in the moment for a little while.

“Hey,” she said, suddenly pulling back. “You have to win the game if you want the prize,” she reminded him, waving her game controller in his face.

“Alright, doc,” Wade agreed with a wide smile yet. “I hear ya.”

They both faced the screen then and began their game, grinning like fools, laughing like kids, knowing before the night was through, they would be rolling around in bed like lovers should. It didn’t matter what they did or who knew about it now. Nothing else mattered at all, except the fact they were making each other happy.


End file.
